Not so sunny and a bit cool to start, then warming and getting wet with rain later in the day. Raining overnight too. Houston and south are fine so far, but our neighbors to the north and east are flooded, with no relief due for a couple more days at least.
After a night sleeping in my chair, I slept late Saturday. That put me behind all day, and in no mood for hard work. [Insert Highlander quote about mood.] I did some small things related to moving stuff off the “do something to this” pile to the “now do something else with this, in some other place…” pile. Not a lot of actual work got done.
Today should be more productive. After a late start. I will continue pecking away at the mound, while maybe making some small progress on stuff around the house. Best I can do at the moment. Oh, and trying to stay out of my wife’s way…
Do what you can with what you’ve got, when you can. And stack.
nick
Carol Loomis still edits (ghostwrites) the Simple Homespun Wisdom (TM)?!?
Officially, she retired from Fortune and the Berkshire gig a decade ago.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/05/warren-buffett-mulls-over-his-own-mortality-at-this-years-berkshire-hathaway-annual-meeting-.html
Maybe relationship with Gates isn’t as soured as many believe.
What? No comments yet? I demand entertainment and distraction when I should be working!
EDIT: So naturally someone posted something between me noticing that there were no comments and my commenting that there were no comments.
If you are awake, you should be working, feeding the AI which the C-suite believes will eventually allow them to fire you.
I sat on a call the other day where a VP crowed about watching an AI take a high level design and generate code. The actual work involved implementing a standard data format, mostly string matching, but the message was clear.
Shocked I am, just shocked…
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/04/1249188864/nyc-columbia-city-college-gaza-protests-palestinian-campus
Rent A Riot. I am shocked that just half of them were not students or school employees. You don’t want to know what I think should be be done with the rioters. Not very Christian of me.
The wife dropped the price on her townhome for sale to $399,500. Hopefully that will get it sold. We are not waiting for a unicorn nor are we putting any money into it. We should have sold it years ago but, life.
BTW, there is a mortgage on the place that she has been paying for years. Plus the property taxes, almost $1k per month plus the $340 / month HOA fee. The common insurance has really got expensive since the 300 unit roof replacements that the previous insurance company refused to cover.
$340/month now with no guarantees that it won’t increase drammatically in the next few years
Weather was ugly in Dallas yesterday all day. I got nervous about hail a couple of times, but it didn’t happen.
Even if the fee didn’t change drammatically, that means an extra $1400 in household income net monthly after taxes to qualify for the best terms on the mortgage.
At this point, your best bet is a REIT owned by VTSMX, like my wife’s nephew used to “buy” his house with his off-base housing allowance, but Abbott and the Legislature are making noise about limiting the corporations buying the residential real estate in Texas.
re: fried eggs on hamburgers:
standard at Wimpy’s, very popular in the UK fifty years ago
ASU senior Hamashole baned from campus, can’t rake finals and graduate:
https://redstate.com/beccalower/2024/05/04/watch-asu-senior-is-triggered-after-learning-getting-arrested-during-pro-hamas-protests-has-consequences-n2173768
Somewhere the world’s tiniest violin is playing, but there is no microphone sensitive enough to detect it.
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2024/05/04/white-house-slashes-environmental-restrictions-for-bidens-pet-projects-n3787772
“Joe Biden is likely aware…”
I’ll take that bet.
The one thing you can always count on with Governor Abbott is that he will always let the horse run free before closing that barn door.
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a60662904/federal-automatic-emergency-braking-mandate/
Yet another system that will brick your ride if it fails.
And no more ramming your way through the roadblocks when the cops are after you.
What? A 24/7 network devoted just to cartoons? What a concept!
They could sell time to advertise … toys. Or breakfast cereals.
Why some cartoon characters could even have their own breakfast cereals.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/other/metv-toons-network-to-launch-as-a-collaboration-between-weigel-broadcasting-and-warner-bros-discovery/ar-AA1nZHfw
Seriously, someone at Weigel remembers that show business is still a business.
We watch MeTV or H&I every night.
Retail and advertising will have to be rediscovered. Might as well get that process going before the true dark age sets in — the process will be much easier.
IIRC, the Mayor Pete Buttplug-mandated kill switch gets installed in vehicles starting in the 2026 model year.
Get your Barchetta now.
@Greg Norton
“We watch MeTV or H&I every night.”
I’ve been watching DefyTV on occasion. American Pickers Wed, Storage Wars on Thur, and Foged in Fire on Fri.
“Get your Barchetta now.”
Chrysler Imperial 1964-1966.
@Nick
Did you know that there is a Cold Brew Caramel M&M?
https://www.walmart.com/ip/M-M-s-Caramel-Cold-Brew-Chocolate-Candy-Sharing-Size-9-05-oz/534894820
Broadcast TV is not dead, but the Feds have to stop messing with the standards.
Yes, ATSC is better than what came before – even tough color NTSC was such a beautiful mathematical hack that should have been preserved in some way IMHO – NOW STOP.
And for the love of God, The Real Life Tony Stark (TM) is not going to fulfill The Pizza Box Dream if you just turn over the broadcast TV and radio spectrum to him and the other wireless providers.
They mean it this time …
Yet another system that will brick your ride if it fails.
Subies have automatic braking. When the Vision system fritzes, none of the automatic vision based systems work (auto braking, cruise control, lane detection, etc). Even hard rain will shut them off. Our first house in Vegas had a steep driveway. If I backed out too fast, the Subie would violently brake. “You’re going to hit the road…screeeee”. Very annoying.
BTW, based on what I saw in The Holocron store in Dallas yesterday, “Star Wars” isn’t dead either.
The store was packed and the registers never stopped.
The Weatherman will go down in history as one of the most inept CEOs ever put in charge of a major corporation.
Buy ‘Murican
I read Foster’s MTI before the movie came out.
Nothing since has changed my opinon that the story is third-rate 50’s sf pulp that didn’t make the grade.
CGI rools, tho.
wait for the reboot:
“Luke, Luke… I am your mother…”
A VP with limited (or no) technical skills. Wait for it…
Ouch
Apparently most people on most campuses were not students. It may or may not be rent-a-riot. There are also just a lot of drifters who join every protest in hopes of a bit of violence.
Yesterday we moved the chickens from the patio to the yard. I’d wanted to do it a few weeks ago but we never had a confluence of acceptable weather and The Child being available to help. I can’t single-handedly move either the coop or the run from the patio, over the low retaining wall, between the orchard* and shed, past the grape vine trellis, and finally up to the yard. I probably could, technically, but it would take hours for the coop and probably a full day for the run. That’s just the moving and doesn’t include partially disassembling the run in order to get the coop out so we could move the run.
Anyway, it’s done. The chickens spent most of the day in the garden while my wife did this n that and kept them from nibbling the more tempting sprouts. Several of the hens wanted to lay while we were moving things and they went down to the patio and wandered around in confusion because “home” wasn’t there. Once the coop was most of the way to where it was needed, I set it up, then picked up a couple of the hens and carried them in, because they were unable to realize that the coop sitting there was their happy home, just in a different place. Got five eggs from six hens yesterday, despite the disruption, and for all I know the sixth hen laid in the garden or elsewhere.
And today it’s been raining since before dawn. The birds mostly sit under the tarp that I put on the run but also spend a fair amount of time not under the tarp, getting rained on and looking unhappy. They’re probably unhappy less because of the rain than because they’re in the run with only 35 sq ft each and aren’t being allowed to free range. It’s unconstitutional! Well, sorry, my little chickadees, but I need to earn money today, and that means sitting at my computer, and that means me not being out in the rain.
* Which is nothing but a waste of space and resources, as the six trees produce just a handful of mangy apples and three insect-chewed pears each year.
Ah, I am vertical, and with half a cup of the good stuff in me, I’m almost friendly…
Sun is out although everything is wet from the rain this morning. Wife says only ½” but it sure sounded like more.
She checked the online rain gauges and thinks the water level at the BOL has peaked. The HOA dock was under water and my dock was very close to the water level. My dock is absurdly high normally. Buddy sent pix on Friday of the flood. It’s nothing like Lake Conroe where there are dock houses with just the roofs above the water. The pig is slowly working it’s way thru the anaconda and the flood surge is moving south along the watersheds. Mr Lynn – you should keep an eye on river levels…
Very atypical for me, I lay in bed awake for a couple hours last night. I usually don’t have much trouble falling asleep, I just have to stop moving. Odd.
——————-
I finished the re-fresh/install from restore partition of the PC I was working on yesterday. Made the mistake of telling it I had a network before setting up the local account… man what an intrusive POS win10 is. NO WAY to set it up without an existing email account AND a cell phone to receive SMS to… that really sux for some people. then the stuff they ask permission to do! HELL NO I don’t want all that cr@p. And HELL NO I don’t want you to share with HP and thru them McAfee…
BTW I tried to just create a new account, funny. “IhatePedos”@outlook was take. Same for MSsucksmyd!ck I didn’t keep checking other hate filled names but I guess I’m not the only one who finds the process invasive and hateful, and I guess people ARE predictable.
Oh and a PIN was required. NO way to skip that although the language sounds optional… and 6666 is too common a pattern to use but 1212 isn’t? with a 4 digit pin, I’d like to see the distribution of the 10K possible choices…
Oh, and ho boy that cortana is annoying.
n
BTW, whenever anyone asks where all the additional hardware and power are going? they’re going into crep like cortanna, which no one asked for, and all the spying… and eye candy like fading menus…
They are not going to getting work done.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-13384887/National-fashion-chain-shuts-stores.html
Been thru bankruptcy twice already, and is $200M in debt…
article also mentions 99c store and Express…
n
I think that part of the reason my chickens are unhappy is because their four-rung perch, which they love, wasn’t set up under the tarp. OK, easily fixed. I’ll put in on the side that’ll get (a little) sun in the morning and will be shaded by the tarp in the afternoon.
The Child seems to have caught a cold. Again. She’s not getting enough sun and probably not enough sleep, but she wouldn’t be getting sick if she weren’t constantly exposed to sick people. Now, I’m uncomfortable with just going in and beating the crap out of any kid who came to school sick … but their parents are fair game.
@stevef, Vitamin D3 supplements? good against the wuflu too.
n
This week D1 got the food born illness that results in diarrhea that is mostly hot water with patches of egg yolk sized nasty, and gas…
Comes from not washing hands and handling food… which is super ick.
Now she knows what to expect from that one.
———-
when I was traveling for work I got sick many times a year. 300+ meals in restaurants all over the country (and sometimes world) PER YEAR will do that. It’s a lot of dice rolling…
————
not much flu or cold this year so far though.
n
One thing about chickens and birds in general that bugs me– they LOOK fluffy and soft, but when you actually pet them or scritch them, they are spikey and the soft is away from their actual bodies. Something about that really bothers me on a deep level.
n
I, too, have a cold and sore throat.
Of course, I don’t have to go anywhere, and so I’ll probably stay home. Especially with these continuted rainstorms.
Please note that I think I have a virus, type unspecified, and I don’t care. Cough drops, tea, liquids, D3, Zinc. Wait for it to pass. Maybe Mucinex if it comes to that.
The sum total of my outside the house mingling with people is the shooting range, the grocery store, and my midweek lunch with a bunch of ham radio friends. So I don’t know how I picked it up, but I’ll be careful not to pass it on.
Well I’m poking at the PC turning stuff off and generally being annoyed.
Why did MS log me into skype, with some made up screen name? I have a skype account and name, which it never asked me for, nor did it ask if I wanted to be logged in, let alone as some name no one knows. WTF would I want that?
No I don’t want onedrive.
No I don’t want personalization from HP.
Nor do I want all that cr@p on the taskbar, or search.
I don’t want it going out and getting random pictures or going to sleep and locking the screen with a pin.
FFS.
DL firefox and uBlock… and then clean the cr@p from that. I don’t want “stories” or “recommendations”.
I have forgotten how much of that stuff I’ve killed in my normal setup, and some of it has surely gotten worse than the last time I set up a fresh machine.
BTW, a machine that was completely unusable, with long lag between clicking on stuff and having anything happen is running just fine on the bare bones install. It’s fairly responsive, and capable. I don’t believe that he could possibly have played any games on it as it was despite the Roblox and Steam services installed.
———————–
Pouring down rain atm.
again.
n
He has decent skills but the last hands on work was more than a decade ago.
The push to use AI to fire people comes from the very top of many organizations, and ours is no exception. People who talk about developers being “on the spectrum”, something which has been fashionable for the last decade but is a horseshit attitude since the “spectrum“ dwellers get the real work done.
A shakeup in tech management is long overdue, but AI is giving a lot of poor management a lifeline to stretch out careers to retirement, and that will be exploited as much as possible.
Will AI work?
is Batman a transvestite?
Nobody knows.
Nick, I think I once had a handle of OldWindowsGuy here or more likely on the hardware message board, so what I am about to say should come as no surprise to you.
My wife picked out a black Friday (half price, woo-hoo!) Dell notebook at a Microsoft store when W10 was new. It came with an OEM installation with no bloatware. I was able to configure it with no Microsoft account just by learning from some Googling. She uses it every day, and it still runs quite well. Does have a weird keyboard.
I had earlier bought a refurb HP Xeon “workstation” from a Microsoft certified refurbisher. It came with a new hard disk with OEM W7 preinstalled. I played with W7 on the test bench for some months, until I was ready to switch back from Linux. I did the free upgrade in place to W10, and at the time thought W10 was probably better than W7, although I didn’t really wring out W7. I have used it as my primary computer ever since.
I was able to avoid all your complaints by reading up on how to configure W10. The information is out there. I have my logs to record what I did. The whole process was easier than migrating to a new cell phone (I had a couple of nightmares in that area.) Although there are always some things I don’t like about every OS I have used, W10 ranks near the top of my personal list for usability. These two systems are solid, with very low idle activity, and none of the swap file thrashing some complain about. They are what I call business computers: no games or CAD, or video editing, although I do moderate amounts of still photo editing using open source applications. They are as comfortable as well-broken-in shoes.
I have had similar experiences with every production Windows system I have personally set up. I did have a couple I didn’t like, and never made it off the test bench. Win98 and 98SE are notable versions I disliked, although I later found out I also had some hardware problems. I moved to W2000 and almost simultaneously fixed the hardware problems, so who knows?
I went from W2000 to five years of Linux, to W10. I had thought W2000 was complicated! W10 is complex and insistent on some odd stuff, but I mostly ignore it. The applications, like the Office suite, have evolved similarly, and have some annoying traits much worse than W10. I can get along.
For me, Linux was an interesting learning experience. There was much to like, but it wasn’t mainstream. Many of the apps have touches of brilliance, but also have severe rough edges. Windows apps are usually more workable for me, with fewer touches of brilliance, but also fewer rough edges. Windows and the popular apps work like that old simple, reliable pickup; Linux and the apps feel like driving an exotic car that demands a lot of the driver, but which also stalls and coasts to the side of the road occasionally. Guess which I would rather have? Still… that exotic is sometimes tempting.
Time to get ready to take D2 to her Cotillion club final dance. I don’t dance much, more like stand in place and sway, or slowly shuffle my feet, but the kids will be showing us that they learned more than which fork to use…
n
Just look at the pain in her face. She needs a psychiatrist more than her useless degree.
Also, a toothbrush.
Mr Lynn – you should keep an eye on river levels…
I really should not worry. I am now five miles away from the Brazos River, on the south side of the railroad tracks (a levee with very few breaks !), and 81 feet above sea level.
But I worry for my neighbors in the old neighborhood because when they extended the levee, all they did was go up. They did not widen the base of the levee. That makes a precarious structure made out of dirt and clay.
https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=hgx&gage=rmot2&hydro_type=0
But, one should keep an eye on things going wonky.
Plant-based meat sales down in US as customers dislike taste, price: report
https://thepostmillennial.com/plant-based-meat-sales-down-in-us-as-customers-dislike-taste-price-report
It’s not meat. Calling it meat is false advertising. If the FTC allows “Meat” “Beef” or any other label word that misleads people their budget should be zeroed for next year.
The requirement should be that the largest type on the label plainly states “PLANT”. Congress needs to get that written into law. Same for “BUGS”.
Anything else is about as honest as hiring someone to a dollar salary, and then first paycheck they find out it not U.S. dollars. Come to think of it, let’s switch the entire government over to Zimbabwe dollars.
Ouch
Covers the outside insurance (roof, liability, etc), the mowing of the front yards, the common area maintenance, the swimming pool, etc.
Win11 has the same reputation. It deserves it, too. My current PC has built in wi-fi. No Ethernet? Why, hey, here’s some wi-fi to use!!! Setting it up was a PITA. But I managed to have only a local account. No passwords or lock screens. No OneDrive or Cortana or the new AI thing, whatever it’s called. The Xbox thing that I have zero interest has had a name change to Game Bar. I still don’t want it.
I don’t want to store anything on “The Cloud” thank you very much.
Anyway. I liked the machine enough that I bought a second. Might not be the bestest (that’s a word, I say so) but it’s snappier than the i5 it replaced. Setting Moa up was easier. And then Someone was making noises about how he’d like a new PC too “but, no, no, my win7 machine does all I want, I don’t need a new PC”. I’m dense, not totally clueless. For his PC I unplugged the UniFi from the switch to kill all wi-fi. Set-up for Kiwi went pretty easy. Then I turned wi-fi on and told it to hit Windows Update. Bought a new monitor and mounted the PC on the back. Slick.
I have two i5 towers that run Win7 great. Another tower that runs WinXp great. All three are going away. There was a guy on the wISP’s Discord room wanting old PCs. He’ll need hard drives. I have Emu and Moa plus Kiwi as a spare.
“Packs of Feral Dogs Attacking in Philly”
https://areaocho.com/packs-of-feral-dogs-attacking-in-philly/
Looks like the cop did not start shooting the feral dogs until things starting going real bad.
The boy, check that, young man is home form school. This semester worked him hard. He got behind in Dynamics with a bad first test, and had to work hard to get his grade up. He ended up with a C, and that’s ok. I think he learned more from that C than the A’s and B’s in everything else. So now he can relax. He has an interview at Lowes on Monday for a summer job, which he will get. Next summer (junior year) will be the push for an internship.
And yes, I am going to take advantage of his Lowes discount…
There are advantages to living in the sticks.
One is not having the seemingly popular rolling dumpsters instead of a trash can. Never mind that if I had a rolling dumpster, beyond the stupid expensive monthly cost, there is getting the stupid thing to the paved road a mile from the house. What, you expect me to somehow get the thing into the bed of my pick-up? Or maybe hitch the trailer to the riding lawn mower? Or pick it up and tote it with the clamp on forks on the tractor’s bucket?
We tried the community dumpster about 20 years ago. It would get dumped and the next day would be full. So Bob welded a chain on one side over the lids with a hasp on the other side. Issued everyone a key for the padlock. Didn’t matter. The folks that filled the dumpster the day after it being dumped just tossed their bags of trash next to the dumpster. It was nice while it worked. Came out to about $12 a month at the time.
I need to use some of the cinder blocks I have to build a burn pit.
I cleaned and cleared a lot of stuff from the kitchen cupboards yesterday. Stacked it on the dining room table. If I had the rolling dumpster I would have skipped the the dining room table.
Second advantage is this morning on the way for coffee, I had the thought that some of the stuff I’m tossing is actually good stuff that I never use. Folks like Tupperware. I don’t know current prices for anything. But as a guess, I’ll say there’s $80 at least sitting there. I’m going to box it all up and take it to the Village Crossing. It was a grocery store but it’s now an indoor flea market. You can rent a booth and they take a percentage of the sales. I’m just going to give it to them. I’m going to throw it away, why not let someone try to make a few bucks?
Yeah, I did retrieve my old cereal bowl. I haven’t used it for years but I sure did eat a lot of Cheerios from it. Silly, I know.
@paul, tupperware, especially in the right color or a weird uncommon special purpose piece can indeed be worth more than you’d think.
n
Tupperware and Corning Ware and Corelle. Some wacky prices on eBay. SaladMaster gets “odd” at times, too.
And Pez. Jeebus.
“2024 Annual GWPF Lecture – Judith Curry – Climate Uncertainty and Risk”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/05/03/2024-annual-gwpf-lecture-judith-curry-climate-uncertainty-and-risk/
“Some example headlines I’ve spotted over the last two years: “Almost half of UK adults fear falling into fuel poverty before the year’s end.” “Why Dutch farmers are protesting over emissions cuts.” “Rich countries’ climate policies are colonialism in green.” African nations expect to make the case for a big rise in fossil fuel output. So how did we come to be between a rock and a hard place on the climate issue, where we are allegedly facing an existential threat, and the proposed solutions are both unpopular and infeasible? Well, in a few words, we’ve put the policy cart before the scientific horse.”
This is a good analysis of how we got here and what we need to do. There is little to no scientific basis in all of this global cooling XXXXX XXXX global warming XXXXX XXXX climate disruption nonsense. And I am fascinated by the sheer arrogance of those who believe that they can control CO2 production without killing off 90% of the human population.
Especially since killing off 90% of the population won’t have ANY effect on the weather. CO2 mostly comes from volcanoes, not human activity.
Not sure if that is true. Some quick research:
>> Yeah, I did retrieve my old cereal bowl. I haven’t used it for years but I sure did eat a lot of Cheerios from it. Silly, I know.
I’d call it sentimental, not silly.
Not sure why this is in the DM now…but hey, the pictures are interesting if nothing else…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13371767/furry-convention-orgy-sex-violence-hotel.html
Any connection to Boeing planes is just coincidental…right??
Boeing faces critical launch Monday ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station
CO2 is a piker compared to water vapor.
n
And I’ll just note that the quoted paragraphs are very specific with the numbers for human output, but just armwave and generalize about natural output, which seems sloppy at a minimum and intentionally obfuscatory at worst.
n
@ITGuy 98
”So now he can relax.”
A little.
Look at the course list for next fall. Pull the syllabus (last year is ok)
above should be:
@ITGuy 98
”So now he can relax.”
A little.
Look at the course list for next fall. Pull the syllabus (last year is ok). Email the prof and confirm that the text and syllabus are the same. Get the text. Read. Look for internet resources. Quite often you can find a related textbook with a solutions manual. Get that, too. There are 168 hours in the week—hard limit. Lose too much sleep and the cost sux. Taking time in summer pays off.
Schadenfreude sells papers. Plus clickbait online.
A furry convention from 2015 is pushing the limits, however.
Beautiful evening. Clear blue sky. Perfect temp. No bugs. Very light breeze. Sunset below average—but more on the schedule.
Yard work, car maint, other catch-up all day. Sitting with a brown ale from an in-state brewer that I cellared for five years. 9% abv, but should have pulled it at four, I think. I should roadtrip and talk to the brewmaster.
Lost my cat this week. Reading in bed he leaned on my leg and demanded to be petted. Purred like a freight train. Craned his neck around and wanted more everytime I stopped.
When it was time for lights out he moved to the foot if the bed with his pillow and blanket. I got up at 6 and made coffee—he doesnt always get up so when I came back to put day clothes on I petted him and told him I filled his dish. He was gone. Still warm.
He could be a pain. Had a talent for waking me up thirty minutes before the alarm. Would wake me up if his dish wasn’t filled at night. Walked on me in the middle if the night.
I’m going to be seeing him out if the corner of my eye for a long time First time no cat/cats in almost 40 years Did they pass history down? The line is broken Sucks
Life is good if you don’t weaken.
I never saw Dynamics in EE again except for the EIT exam, BUT it angular momentum did come up at the tolling company when management wondered why the autofocus on our in-house plate cameras never seemed to … focus!
The CS guys in Switzerland writing the stepper motor control software had never considered that the glass lens was relatively heavy and the momentum would have to be considered when bringing the lens assembly to a halt.
Sorry for your loss. Ours has been gone over a year now.
A couple of weeks ago, we went to look at the shelter, but the kittens were “adoption pending” and the remaining adult cats had issues. We revisit every once in a while.
I forgot the other inflation item I saw this weekend in DFW.
$3.50/gallon 87 octane unleaded in the “hood” of Fort Worth.
I only bought $20, enough to get to the new Buc-ee’s in Hillsboro, where the same grade was $3.09/gallon.
The Buc-ee’s went up fast. I don’t remember it being there when I drove through Hillsboro last July on the way back from Nashville with the Jetta.
People went bonkers with Pez long before things like Beanie Babies or Barbies.
Pez was one of the many collections at House on the Rock, with the back third of the attraction featuring nothing but the builder’s various collections of things.
Every now and again specific bits of my engineering education come in handy but the real value of engineering school and working as an engineer for a time was the mindset. CS majors and “Information Technology Specialists” tend to accumulate specific skills on particular programming languages or tools but never develop an organized, disciplined mindset focused on solving the real problem and not just the problem at hand. No, that’s not quite true. At best, they tend to accumulate skills. Many never clear even that hurdle.
n.b.: Giving someone the job title of Software Engineer doesn’t make him an engineer.
The tolling company handed that title out to lots of people who didn’t have engineering degrees.
My favorite was the Software Engineer who had a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Music Education.
Drwilliams; I’m sorry for your loss.
Universities desperately wanted to exert control and become the gatekeepers of coding as the need exploded in the 80’s and 90’s.
The computer science degree designed to serve the mainframe begot computer engineering and software engineering, with the former an offshoot of EE and the latter some sort if bastard child with two illegitimate parents. That was never engineering.
Yes, it’s possible to be an engineer without thermo. The Romans had a lot of them and they built the aqueducts that stand 2000 years later. The Victorians had their engineers, too. Coding for some forgotten TI microprocessor does not put you in the Crystal Palace or Firth Bridge league. At least one of the Wrights was an engineer without thermo and before aeronautical e was invented . Flocking gatekeepers.
Engineering at present has two major problems, one long-standing and one relatively new but related.
The first is that “managing” engineers is typically a way to appear to be a successful manager.
The newer problem is that a lot of the engineering nuts and bolts can be done with software without having an intuitive grasp of the process. It’s possible to turn the crank and give the appearance without having or being aware that you lack the substance.
@Greg and @SteveF make good points above.
Feynman was a scientist, but he was also an engineer. Elevens at both. There’s a place for the sixes and even the fives. Unfortunately, we have threes who think they are bleeping geniuses making policy.
In the video world there is a long tradition of making a distinction between departments and jobs, with a department called “engineering” which is responsible for the technical aspects of the signal, and hence the image. “Video engineer” is a legit title, with a long history going back to the beginning of the field, and it’s well understood what it means within the industry.
Bigcorp decided that as a manufacturer, they couldn’t have anyone with “engineer” in their title who didn’t have a degree in Engineering. Video Engineers rarely if ever have a degree in Engineering. So Bigcorp ignored 60-80 years of industry practice and turned all the Video Engineering folks in the company into something else. Something that no one in the industry they served had any idea what it (the new title) meant. Super dumb.
Just one of the dumb things management did.
FWIW, I started college in Engineering, got weeded out by the weed out classes, changed to business, then theater… and my degree is a BFA. I ended up working in various aspects of the entertainment industry over the next 30 years, and did FAR more engineering than I might have as an actual engineer. Always had someone with the real degree to backstop me though… and if you visit some places you can still see stuff I designed and engineered… although as time goes by fewer survive.
n
@RickH
”However, the vast majority of CO2 emissions today are caused by human processes.”
That statement is so monumentally ludicrous as to forever disqualify the writer from any input in decision making, and perhaps voting on anything at all. I’d argue for institutionalization, but some people thing that I’m extreme.
Please site the source. I’m betting on a science writer that doesn’t know his elbow from his alimentary termination.
@drwilliam, I too am sorry for the loss of your companion. They become family and their loss hurts.
n
I’m a software engineer with only a small amount of imposter syndrome.
I didn’t take drafting, or thermo, or statics, or dynamics.
I did graduate from an actual Engineering college, back in 1976, in one of the very early Computer Science programs.
So we learned engineering principles, system analysis before it was called that, operating systems and multiprocessing systems and multitaking systems when this was all barely past the academic theory point. I had to take hardware courses where we designed TTL logic. Using discreet transistors.
I read Codd & Date before there was ever a commercial relational database, or any SQL processor.
What you need (or used to need) to do software engineering is the affinity to computers and programming, and more of an affinity to identifying and solving problems. Someone very wise once pointed out that the solution to a problem does not always involve a computer.
Note: I always confuse discrete and discreet. I’ll leave it.
When it was time for lights out he moved to the foot if the bed with his pillow and blanket. I got up at 6 and made coffee—he doesnt always get up so when I came back to put day clothes on I petted him and told him I filled his dish. He was gone. Still warm.
Dadgum, that sucks. Sorry to hear that.
n.b.: Giving someone the job title of Software Engineer doesn’t make him an engineer.
Does for me. I have had a Professional Engineer license in The Great State Of Texas since 1989.
>> My favorite was the Software Engineer who had a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Music Education.
I remember years ago when for a few years it was in vogue to hire “smart” BA grads on the premise that you could more easily teach them to code vs teaching an average BS CS grad to be creative.
>> I remember years ado when for a few years it was in vogue to hire “smart” BA grads on the premise that you could more easily teach them to code vs teaching an average BS CS grad to be creative.
One advantage of working for the same company for close to 40 years, (alongside others with 30 – 40 years), is you’ve outlasted many of the mergers, acquisitions and C-suite and HR changes. You kinda accept the ‘flavor of the month’ (six sigma, agile, devops, etc.) with a chuckle and thinking out loud “this too shall pass.” More glad than not that I missed the launch of AI at the ol’ salt mine.
@drwilliams – sorry for your loss – hurts when you outlive any of your critters.
Turned out for us that it was a lot better to take technically minded people who had proved themselves capable of living and working “on the road” without much supervision, or guidance, and teach them the technical aspects of our installation and field service work than trying to take trained factory or lab guys out into the field.
The touring/road/field service guys/gals had their lives together and could self regulate while the factory guys either went nuts being separated from their “normal” lives or went nuts without supervision and got involved in self destructive behaviors.
That weeding out phase had already happened with our seasoned road guys.
Our management never understood that people have unique strengths and weaknesses and different histories and desires for the future.
The biggest requirement for field guys was willingness to work away from home and an ability to get things done. Exhaustive technical knowledge wasn’t required. Troubleshooting skills were. We had excellent backstop from the tech support staff in Canadia for in depth issues. We didn’t have excellent support booking travel/hotels/AA meetings/strip club avoidance/relationship counseling.
n
Sorry for your loss. Our pets are truly part of our family, and it’s OK to miss them as much. Our last cat made “appearances” out of the corner of my eye for many months. It’s been over five years now, and I still think he might be around at times, although less often. He must think I am OK on my own.
Although I also like dogs, and have had a few, cats are truly mystical beings.
The computer science degree designed to serve the mainframe begot computer engineering and software engineering, with the former an offshoot of EE and the latter some sort if bastard child with two illegitimate parents. That was never engineering.
Yes, it’s possible to be an engineer without thermo. The Romans had a lot of them and they built the aqueducts that stand 2000 years later. The Victorians had their engineers, too. Coding for some forgotten TI microprocessor does not put you in the Crystal Palace or Firth Bridge league. At least one of the Wrights was an engineer without thermo and before aeronautical e was invented . Flocking gatekeepers.
TAMU has two different types of computer degrees. They are Computer Engineering and Software Engineering. The Computer Engineering degree has an emphasis on hardware but not to the level of a Electrical Engineering degree.
At TAMU, Civil Engineers and Industrial Engineers do not take much thermo or chemistry. Mechanical Engineers (me !) take two junior level thermo courses and 3 or 4 senior level thermo courses. Chemical Engineers take sophomore, junior, and senior thermo (live, eat, breathe thermo). I think that Petroleum engineers take the same amount of thermo as Mechanical Engineers but am not sure.
You kinda accept the ‘flavor of the month’ (six sigma, agile, devops, etc.) with a chuckle and thinking out loud “this too shall pass.”
–and the pointy haired boss who brought in the new hotness blames the failure on all those of you who didn’t “buy in” to the new thing. You aren’t “team players”. You’re “set in your ways”. You’re “fearful of change”. And too often the decision is “you’ll have to go” so the new young kids can be brought in and molded in the new image… and another once great company gets gutted and crumbles.
Because the new thing becomes more important than the business of the company.
n
”However, the vast majority of CO2 emissions today are caused by human processes.”
That statement is so monumentally ludicrous as to forever disqualify the writer from any input in decision making, and perhaps voting on anything at all. I’d argue for institutionalization, but some people thing that I’m extreme.
Please site the source. I’m betting on a science writer that doesn’t know his elbow from his alimentary termination.
I would love to see the Energy and Material Balance that comes up with those 72% CO2 for humans and 28% CO2 for nature numbers. I suspect that I could poke holes in it rapidly.
Of course, the wild thing is that CO2 has very little to do with global warming. There is a saturation amount with all chemistry, it is maxed out for CO2 already. Global Warming or Global Cooling is controlled by the huge nuclear fusion reactor at the center of the Solar System. All of the planets in the Solar System are currently warming.
>> Because the new thing becomes more important than the business of the company.
Yes if it’s a Dilbert-size company. Less so, in my experience at least, at a Fortune 100 financial services company with 50K+ IT employees.
Used to be you could go to Rosarito beach and have a good time. Females would go in groups and be fine. Males had no trouble. I’ve been a number of times.
But Mexico is not safe for anyone anymore. Tourists used to be off limits outside of the red light areas because tourists were where the money came from. Now it comes from drugs and the cartels.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13385329/Guilt-ridden-friend-Callum-Jake-Robinson-reveals-twist-fate-saved-grim-end-two-Aussie-brothers-killed-Mexico-hand-drawn-map-blew-case-wide-open.html
We’d play volleyball and drink at a bar called Papas and Beer… last time I was there with a sibling and a childhood friend. She was freaking out because the Mexican soldiers patrolling the beach were casually chatting about how they would rape the girls they were looking at (in spanish). The soldiers were there because even 25 years or more ago, crime was rising.
Yeah, I have no desire to visit Mexico.
n
added- my roommate used to take a friend and a jeep and go on surf trips just like those guys, camping on the beach, buying fish and lobsters from local fishermen, surfing all day. From Rosarito to Ensenada just like that…
You kinda accept the ‘flavor of the month’ (six sigma, agile, devops, etc.) with a chuckle and thinking out loud “this too shall pass.”
–and the pointy haired boss who brought in the new hotness blames the failure on all those of you who didn’t “buy in” to the new thing. You aren’t “team players”. You’re “set in your ways”. You’re “fearful of change”. And too often the decision is “you’ll have to go” so the new young kids can be brought in and molded in the new image… and another once great company gets gutted and crumbles.
Because the new thing becomes more important than the business of the company.
Pointy Haired Bosses are a lot easier to find than Good Programmers.
Pointy Haired Bosses are a lot easier to find than Good Programmers.
There is a reason why 80+% of all software projects fail. It is almost always the fault of the pointy haired boss failure to understand the project.
Bill Gates is probably the best Pointy Haired Boss in the world. He is a total jerk but he is able to make people make things happen. That is so rare in the software development world.
I was a part of a ten million dollar software project that failed in 1993. I came in on year three of the project when I decided to go back into the software engineering world in 1989 from the engineering world. The project had so many problems that it was unreal working on it. It was taking a single user VAX engineering CAD database software product written in Fortran to a multiple user Unix engineering CAD database software product written in C.
The project manager focused on a small portion of the product and did not bother with the entirety of the product. Two other project managers were brought in the next year but it was too late as the project managers just started fighting about who was responsible for what portions of the software. It was incredibly hard to watch happen. Since we missed the window, another engineering company came out with the same product in 1993 and killed the market for us so it was abandoned. The company later failed in 1995 which was heartbreaking.